Azrael-wing

I've played a few games with that Ravenwing list. It's great for Maelstrom and Eternal War. Shocking at kill points. Indeed, I rarely kill more than 3 or 4 of my opponent's units in a whole game, and my tactical squads and Rhinos die pretty easily as the game goes on. Book Maelstrom doesn't have kill points so you're sweet in that format. One other thing I wanted to note: first turn stealth on Rhinos thanks to chapter tactics combines really nicely with smoke launchers - you can 4+ cover with you wherever you go. I had a battle against a combined Eldar/Deldar list recently that I will write up a report for in a little bit. In the meantime I want to talk about my game from last night against Tau using my 1850 points Azrael wing list:

Here's the list I ran:

Azrael

Librarian, lvl1 with force maul

Terminators (7) with storm shield and thunder hammer (replaces sergeant)

Land Raider Crusader with Deathwing vehicle

Terminators (5) with cyclone missile launcher

Land Raider Godhammer with Deathwing vehicle

Bikes (5) with plasmagun x2, combi-plasma, attack bike with multi-melta

Bikes (5) with plasmagun x2, combi-plasma, attack bike with multi-melta

* note that the attack bikes are separate units for Dark Angels, which is quite handy for Maelstrom.

That's it. Not a lot of bodies, but it is all objective secured and you have two ob-sec land raiders! I was playing against Tau, which I figured must be the worst match-up, but it actually went really well (possible just because I had first turn). Here is my opponent's list

Shadowsun with 2 shield drones
Crisis team x3 with fusion
Crisis team x2 with fusion
Missile broadside x2
Ion Riptide with EWO
Ion Riptide with EWO
10 fire warriors in devilfish
10 fire warriors in devilfish
5 pathfinders
5 pathfinders
5 pathfinders
Hammerhead with Longstrike
Hammerhead

So this isn't the most tooled-up Tau list. I would drop the hammerheads for more broadsides and give both broadside squads drones so that I can't just plasma them out. I think shadow sun needs a bigger bodyguard, so maybe just combine all the crisis suits into one unit. Drop the pathfinders and replace them with skyrays. Skyrays are so underrated. Much harder to kill that pathfinders and the missile racks make for great anti-air. I also think some Kroot would be useful to help him stop people scouting into his face. Still, Tau is never a good match-up for marines.

We rolled up kill points eternal war with diagonal deployment. I got first turn. I deployed right on my line with everything. He clustered in a big way in his corner but left the crisis teams in reserve and the fire warriors in their devilfishes. I scouted the bikes onto each flank, one team to target the broadsides and the other to attack a lone hammerhead.

First turn I turbo boosted everything. The bikes put 3 wounds on the two broadsides and made them run. The bikes did nothing to the hammerhead. He wiped one squad out with shooting from all his units and put one hull point on the Godhammer with longstrike. His other hammerhead rammed and shot my Crusader but to no effect. His second tide dropped a piece on my other bikes but they jinked the shit out of it! No deaths. I think he makes a mistake here jumping the tide backwards, which allows me to get the Crusader around to it next turn for a 2" charge. If he had jumped towards my bikes I think it would have lived longer. Alternatively I think a 3D6 jump with the nova charge would have been appropriate.

Next turn my terminators get stomping. Both squads exit raiders and charge riptides. The big squad dragon punches the shit out of theirs after my storm shield sergeant 3++s both wounds. The other squad loses a sergeant and does 1 wound for drawn combat. My raiders shoot some stuff. Two squads of pathfinders start running. The last broadside dies. All my bikes charge the rear of the hammer head and blow it up with krak grenades.

His turn one crisis squad comes in and scatters out of melta-range of the Godhammer, which then survives shooting. Longstrike fails to hurt the same Raider. The terminators lose another lad but then go ballistic on the Riptide in reply and mulch it for 5 wounds. It dead.

My turn the bikes do a big sweep to get into positions where they can't be hurt by Shadowsun when she arrives but can attack multiple targets next turn. Azrael's boys get back into their raider, which then drives over to shoot at the crisis team along with the Godhammer. My remaining three terminators make a dash towards Longstrike. The raiders kill on crisis suit and the other 2 start running. His morale rolls were very bad all game.

From here is a bit of a white wash. Shadowsun arrives close enough to melt my godhammer, but I mop her squad up with my bikes pretty fast. The terminators get out of the Crusader and start romping through the devilfishes. The fire warriors don't get through the terminators armour. My other squad goes down to one man but he manages to dragon punch longstrike with his fist. Game over.

This list was surprisingly good, though maybe not so surprising given it was kill points. I thought all those rail guns, meltas and tides would spell trouble for my raiders, but they pulled through totally fine. I think he could have used the crisis teams differently (to protect the riptides say, but saying that if I get in range for a charge they will nuke my raider, the contents of which will then eat Ion Accelerator). Once the terminators hit his line it popped. They do wreck face. A deathwing apothecary would be nice but I'd rather the ob-sec raider. I think that is critical for maelstrom.